Hello AT Romano,
And thank you, thank you, thank you!
You have saved me so much time trying to troubleshoot an issue which is apparently not due to Premiere Elements 8, but in fact the youtube server issue you thoroughly researched and described in the Elements Village forum.
I am very grateful for your time and help.
Yes, I've previously had success when saving the PE8 project to my hard drive (I used format: MPEG, HD720p 25), and then uploading that to my youtube channel. The technology works fine, but the reason I was trying the direct Sharing to youtube option in PE8 (which we know doesn't function on the youtube server side) was to improve the video quality, by selecting "High Definition Video for YouTube - 1920x1080".
If I could ask your opinions on improving the video quality when saving the project to my hard drive, I remain grateful and start with your questions:
1. Although I downloaded and installed PE8 update 8.01, when I run it the message indicates that I have already updated the PE8 version.
However, when I use the "About" menu item, it still reflects version 8.0, instead of 8.01.
Is this normal, or do you think that maybe the 8.0.1 Updater is not running correctly for me when it indicates "The product is up-to-date." because the "About" menu item still indicates version 8.0.
2. "Export your Premiere Elements 8.0/8.0.1 Time to a H.264 .mp4"
This is exactly the advice I am seeking, a better quality video than format MPEG, HD720p 25. However, I am uncertain whether the specific format suggested is available from my pre-sets (which I believe are complete in my PE8 install; I have seen the separate issue where it's necessary to download and install the Blu-ray pre-sets; I didn't need to do that.)
So the question is whether the suggested H.264 .mp4 is the same as H.264 1440x1080i 25 (which saves as a file type: H.264 Blu-Ray, with a .m2t format instead of .mp4 you recommended)
Or perhaps I am missing some pre-sets within the above list to get an .mp4 output?
[Acceptable youtube file formats don't list .m2t: Supported YouTube file formats - YouTube Help]
3. "Do you have the automatic Background Rendering and AutoAnalyzer features turned Off?"
Good question, I will need to do some more research to find where those settings are "selectable" in PE8 and report back here to let you know.
4. "the details of your project settings related to Frame Size, Frame Rate, interlaced or progressive, etc"
I'll also need to do some research to find out how to determine the answers to these settings. If I recall accurately, I made some initial choices when starting creation of the project, and now that the project is made and saved, I cannot change those settings. I'm not yet sure how to find out what selections I had made when I started creating the project, or whether that information is available somewhere AFTER the project is made and saved. I'll need to do some more PE8 research to find out how to answer the questions about Frame Size, Frame Rate, interlaced or progressive.
5. "no problems using Premiere Elements 12 Publish+Share/Social websites/YouTube for an upload of the Timeline to YouTube from within Premiere Elements"
That was another area I was curious about, whether purchasing a more up to date release of PE (like Premiere Elements 12) would help make it more useable. I am hesitant to do that because:
a. I barely know the User Interface for PE8, so relearning what's changed for PE12 is something I would like to avoid. Not being able to upload to youtube directly from PE8 is not a problem. I am happy to save the project to my hard drive and then upload to youtube as suggested, but ... would you recommend I upgrade from PE8 to PE12? ... to achieve the goals of a better quality Export/Save of the project to my hard drive?
b. For any existing projects I have created and saved with PE8, would they still be accessible using PE12?
6. "If you need suggested settings for your export to file of the Premiere Elements 8.0/8.0.1 Timeline, please let me know, and I will post them."
Yes, please. That would address all the questions above (except the first, regarding the PE8 version 8.01.)
This is precisely what I am looking for assistance with.
Apologies for the lengthy post. Your first two replies have been so helpful. I can't tell you how much time and effort you have saved and I remain grateful for your advice on this follow-up. The detailed research and explanations in the Elements Village forum last year were also great!
Thanks!
Mike